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MOGADISHU - The United States and Ethiopia have denied reports Washington mounted new air strikes targeting al Qaeda suspects in Somalia on Wednesday.
A Somali government source and a local lawmaker said US planes struck several sites yesterday after an assault on Monday local time against a village where the suspects were thought to be hiding.
But officials in Washington, who confirmed Monday's assault, denied there had been more strikes. US government sources said Ethiopia, which defeated Islamist forces in a lightning war last month, had conducted further air strikes.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi also said there had been only one US air attack and no civilian casualties.
"There was only one strike ... against what they called the target of opportunity. They knew where the target was and they suspected that the target would move and they would miss the opportunity unless they acted quickly," he said.
The US actions were defended by Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Tony Blair, but criticised by new UN chief Ban Ki-moon, France, the European Union, former colonial power Italy, Egypt and the Arab League.
Meles told a news conference in Addis Ababa Ethiopian soldiers had gone to the site of the US attack. Eight "terrorists" were killed, five captured and seven escaped, he said.
The Somali officials did not say how they distinguished between U.S and Ethiopian planes operating in the remote southern area where Islamists were driven after their defeat.
Lawmaker Abdirashid Mohamed Hidig said after touring the region in an Ethiopian helicopter that at least 50 people were killed by US and Ethiopian air strikes.
The Somali government source said four new US strikes hit areas near Ras Kamboni, a coastal village close to the Kenyan border long thought by Western and east African intelligence agencies to be a hideout and training camp for Islamic militants.
"As we speak now, the area is being bombarded by the American air force," said the source, talking to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The areas struck were Hayo, Garer, Bankajirow and Badmadowe, he said. "Bankajirow was the last Islamist holdout. Bankajirow and Badmadowe were hit hardest".
Hidig told reporters: "Yesterday I personally saw the planes striking. The air strikes resumed this morning." He spoke in the port of Kismayu after returning from a tour of the area.
"The worst loss has befallen civilians since the fleeing Islamists are hiding among the people there," he said.
US officials said Monday's strike targeted an al Qaeda cell that includes suspects in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and a 2002 attack on an Israeli-owned Kenyan hotel.
Somali officials said many died in Monday's strike - the first overt US military action in Somalia since a disastrous humanitarian mission ended in 1994.
UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said: "The secretary-general is concerned about the new dimension this kind of action could introduce to the conflict and the possible escalation of hostilities that may result."
Monday's US attack by an AC-130 plane firing automatic cannons was believed to have killed one of three al Qaeda suspects wanted for the embassy bombings, a US intelligence official said.
Washington is seeking a handful of al Qaeda members including Abu Talha al-Sudani, a Sudanese who US intelligence believes is the network's east Africa boss, and Comorian Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list.
The FBI has offered US$5 million ($7.25 million) for the capture of Mohammed, indicted in a US court for his alleged role in the embassy bombings.
Meles says Ethiopia wants to pull out its troops as soon as possible and make way for African peacekeepers.
"If a peace force does not arrive in time we will not stay for ever. Our troops have broken the backbone of the terrorists but we will linger a while until the mission is accomplished," he said on Wednesday.
- REUTERS
